Structure Design and Force Analysis for a Novel Spherical Robot

Abstract

At present, exploring the vast unknown fields (including space and ocean) has become a hot topic in various agencies. As a moving carrier, the mobile intelligent robot plays an important role, such as communication base stations and observation platform. In order to adapt to a variety of working conditions, a new type of robot was proposed, which can move freely on land or in water with a circular shell, a single propeller and a pair of heavy pendulum. The pendulum inside the robot is used to adjust the attitude, which makes the robot move flexibly, and the circular shell has the excellent compression capability. In order to analyze the kinematics and dynamics characteristics in water, the hydrodynamic forces are studied before the manufacture by CFD simulation. The new type of spherical robot is simplified into spherical finite element model with the pipe. The hydrodynamic force coefficients of robot are calculated by straight shipping, oblique shipping and cantilevered pool simulation. The testing data of robot are obtained in pool for straight shipping by the experiment. Through the above calculation and contrast, the hydrodynamic results can be proved effectively, which can save time for the improved design of robot in the future.